Who has the worst hold music ?

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Mark

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#290129 22-Oct-2021 14:23

My vote is Contact Energy .. the most god awful bit of "pipe" music that screeches down the line at you!

- and you listen to it for a looooong time before they dump your call, but that's a different grumble :-)

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#2799473 22-Oct-2021 14:44

Telstra Clear (when I worked there) used to have horrible hold music, the same 6 songs played end on end.

eracode

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#2799533 22-Oct-2021 15:18

Close tie between Waste Management NZ and Farmers (dept store). IME crap music often foretells crap service once (if) you get through - certainly true in both these examples.

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SirHumphreyAppleby

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#2799536 22-Oct-2021 15:24

I'm not sure which company has the worst. I try hard never to have to call anyone, because it's a frustrating exercise most of the time.

Modern New Zealand music really annoys me when I'm forced to endure it on hold. I'm all for supporting local, but let's be honest about it. A lot of it is rubbish.

I'd be quite happy to pay a few cents more per month for services if I can get classic '70s music on hold when I have to call anyone.

jonathan18

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#2799540 22-Oct-2021 15:33

How about the opposite question?

My favourite is the one my work's IT department used (uses?); strangely calming...

I had no idea what it was until I was listening to a repeat of a 2014 episode of This American Life, which was the story of an old man and his obsession in trying to find what the hold music was at the various hospitals he called regularly - and it was the same audio! Turns out to be the default music for Cisco's systems, written by a 16 year old (poor bugger didn't earn royalties off it!). Given this forum, I'm sure many of you know it well.

If interested, here's the podcast link and discussed in this Atlantic article.

michaelmurfy

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#2799546 22-Oct-2021 15:53

Reminded me of the latest Simpsons episode when Homer attempts to contact "Wayz" Customer Service.

This will be great to implement.

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Shindig

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#2799554 22-Oct-2021 16:11

HSBC UK is quite repetitive...

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#2799555 22-Oct-2021 16:13

Amazon US hold music.

Can't handle it for more than 5 seconds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgaFbR0JlgA

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Morgenmuffel

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#2799576 22-Oct-2021 16:53

eracode:

Close tie between Waste Management NZ and Farmers (dept store). IME crap music often foretells crap service once (if) you get through - certainly true in both these examples.

Waste Management all the way, I despise it intensely and it just keeps repeating, i am seriously considering a kickstarter to hire a musician to play some tunes to donate to them

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eracode

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#2799742 23-Oct-2021 06:47

Morgenmuffel:

eracode:

Close tie between Waste Management NZ and Farmers (dept store). IME crap music often foretells crap service once (if) you get through - certainly true in both these examples.

Waste Management all the way, I despise it intensely and it just keeps repeating, i am seriously considering a kickstarter to hire a musician to play some tunes to donate to them

Not just that, but every minute or so they interrupt the crapsic with very loud recorded messages. There's two or three different messages but one of them is trying to sell you on contacting them via their website. Thanks but do they really think I would put myself through the call-centre purgatory if there was any other way to contact them about what I want to contact them about?

It's not uncommon to wait 20-30 mins in their phone queue and it's not uncommon to simply get cut-off while waiting. That's because they always say they are "experiencing greater-than-normal call volumes''. And if/when you do get through, the service is appalling - several times I have insisted on talking to a supervisor. One exasperating time I resorted to calling on their corporate number and asked for the manager of the division that was causing my issue (domestic contract rubbish collection). He 'wasn't available' but did call me back 2-3 days later - and I got the issue sorted. If the call centre was a decent one, it should have been easy to resolve it with them.

I know this is OT re the music OP - but all part of the bigger picture here IMO.

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MadEngineer

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#2799818 23-Oct-2021 12:12

Best hold music has to be Chillisoft. They actually have a menu item on their phones to listen to it.

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jpoc

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#2799860 23-Oct-2021 14:17

Worst that I have heard recently has to be iSlugSnot but that might be because they are so mixed hp.

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MadEngineer

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#2799981 23-Oct-2021 15:47

jonathan18:

How about the opposite question?

My favourite is the one my work's IT department used (uses?); strangely calming...

I had no idea what it was until I was listening to a repeat of a 2014 episode of This American Life, which was the story of an old man and his obsession in trying to find what the hold music was at the various hospitals he called regularly - and it was the same audio! Turns out to be the default music for Cisco's systems, written by a 16 year old (poor bugger didn't earn royalties off it!). Given this forum, I'm sure many of you know it well.

If interested, here's the podcast link and discussed in this Atlantic article.

so many covers of this

Opus No. 1 REMIX // cisco phone hold music - YouTube

Edit:

I'm totally uploading that to my hold music

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

neb

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#2800121 23-Oct-2021 17:58

Many years ago when I worked for $company it had just got big enough that they added a small PBX rather than everyone having their own direct line. For testing purposes, and as a bit of a joke, I put "Blessed are the Sick" by Morbid Angel in the CD tray.

It took quite awhile before anyone remembered about it...

eracode

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#2820139 27-Nov-2021 09:35

Been hold to 2 Degrees support, 28 minutes and counting - the music is execrable. Regular too-loud announcements saying how busy they are and how important my call is to them. Most unimpressed.

Given that I had to ring them because of an error they had made, I really wish they'd send me one of those follow-up surveys "How did we do?".

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

Goosey

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#2820178 27-Nov-2021 10:57

Side topic. If you were an emerging NZ artist(s) or already popular.... it would be a good thing to NOT give permission to Vodafone to use your music "On hold"......no matter what they wanna pay you.

It would be incredibly damaging long term.

Everytime I hear a tune that VF have used... it's a "trigger". :-)

"Your so special to me"....

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